Hysteric

“Balls…” Arisa muttered and slumped down onto a clear plastic bed with a thick foam mat set on top of it.

“You okay,” Zach spoke through the little holes in the wall so she could hear him.

“I hate this room… I hate these cells…” She pouted as she peered through the familiar prison cells.
Each cell was designed in a clear heavy duty plastic so that observations could be made without obstruction and recorded. In the cell directly next to hers Zach had been placed, but as she peered about she could not see the other two in any of the empty clear chambers.

“Where are Megurine and Danny? Or is her name Julia? Jules? Why does she have so many names?” Arisa spoke with a tinge of frustration tinting her voice.

Zach answered, “They said Danny would need closer observation; poor boy… he broke down. All his worst fears standing in front of him. Living humans holding him in a medical cell, he can’t handle the bad memories again. So Meg will stay by his side to help him overcome his fears. Your doctors had a sympathetic ear to his experience: they gave him a few rooms to roam in while being under observation so that he would not crumble to his past memories again. And as for Julia, well… she just likes to keep things complicated.”

Arisa breathed a sigh of relief, “a bit unorthodox for our doctors, but hopefully you’re friend Danny will feel safe.”

Zach leaned his back up against the wall sliding down to a seated position next to his new companion. He looked back and noticed Arisa hadn’t moved at all since sitting down on the clear bed. Her body seemed to be shaking as she stared out to the rooms past the plastic walls with nervous eyes.

“Come on now, these aren’t so bad. At least we know no one is going to be changing, right?” Zach tried his best to ease Arisa. He was surprised to see this energetic creature break this quickly. He had expected her to blow this off much like she had done with everything else since encountering him.

Her eyes teared up suddenly, “yeah, sure… g‘night Zach.” She swung her legs up onto the foam matt and closed her eyes. Arisa hated these cells, more than anything else here, she hated these cells.

When she awoke she looked up and saw Zach was sitting forward staring off into space with an absolutely dazed look on him. He was twiddling his thumbs against one another almost in a state of trance to help the time pass a little faster.

“I’m sorry man,” she said as she walked towards the wall that connected with his, “it’s just… bad memories you know. We’ve all got bad memories, but this place is exceptionally horrible.”

Zach glanced at her with a curious expression, “you don’t have to tell me, I’m sure a local colonial will tell me your story eventually.”

Arisa frowned, “yeah, that is the truth of it, but I think it’s easier if you hear that tale out of me first. Trust me, there is a reason this place makes me so moody.”

Zach moved over and placed his back against the clear plastic wall next to hers so he could hear, “It’s okay Arisa, we are united in our tragedy.”

She smiled weakly and began, “you see, after my mom raced in here we had to go to the doctors for evaluations too. Both of us were skinned up pretty bad you know. I was a toddler from the great outdoors; I always had scrapes and bumps. Mom had just barreled through a horde of zombies so her scrapes were unidentifiable, but people around here don’t take chances. So we were thrown into two separate cells, much like you and me, but we were still next to one another.

“I used to cry a lot when I couldn’t have mom hug me… totally oblivious to the situation around me. If I would have been a little older I would have noticed her sweating, the way she panted, that far off distant glazed look she would get, and her crying in the night. But I didn’t notice. The nurses always gave me this sad look when they brought the food in. Eventually they stopped opening mom’s door to give her food. They would slide it in, and she wouldn’t eat it.

“One night mom told me how much she loved me, just before bed. I lied down and fell asleep, but it wasn’t a very good sleep. I awoke to this terrible growling, a noise I am, sadly, familiar with. I look over and… well mom is just clawing at the plastic sides of the wall, except… she wasn’t my mom anymore. A zombie was staring at me, hungry to tear into me, to tear away all of my flesh and eat me up, and that zombie was my mom. My mom who protected me as we raced into the building.

“Remember now, they don’t use guns inside either, so a well armored man stepped in. Mom’s attention was taken off of me as she ran at him. He swings a steal baseball bat once and throws her down onto the ground, he swings it a second time and cracks open mom’s skull. The third time ensures she never gets up again. Then he just hands the bat to a nurse and leaves like nothing happened. Not so much as a glance in my direction when I start to cry.”

Arisa sighed, “So you see, I hate these bins. I watched my mom turn first, then get hammered to death… rather unfortunate.”

“I know the feeling,” Kira responded, “my mom changed too, except it was me that killed her. I broke out from Juvey… well more like I was released. Hard to contain us when the zombies start pushing in. I ran back home, since we had a breach in the colony, to find my mom. There she was, eating away at my step dad, with her belly spilled open and a little unborn baby calmly chewing on the man’s fingers. I lost it… I smashed her head in with my fists… but I really don’t remember much more than that, well… I guess I might have stepped on my little brother’s head. I don’t recall doing anything to the undead stillborn, but when I came too he was crushed and I was covered in blood head to foot. Rather tragic one would think.”

Arisa’s grew silent looking back behind her. Zach had his head down and he was smiling softly. She couldn’t help but wonder if he was bullshitting her. No one tells a story like that in such a calm manner unless they were so used to telling it that the memory has lost value. That or perhaps her new friend was insane. He managed to live outside, and his little band came from some of the more messed up human colonies. Perhaps Zach wasn’t all he seemed.

Arisa replied, “Um… no words… can be used as an appropriate response…”

He was so calm in the way he described that situation; so incredibly laid back and his words flowed with such ease. It was clear he had found away to saw off the emotions attached to a memory that should have cause great torment for him.

“No words are needed, what’s done is done. No need to revel on the moment. I don’t let it affect me too much, she was dead, he was dead, and killing my step dad a second time granted me an unusual amount of satisfaction. I felt like I was dead by the end of it… ready to be taken into the embrace of death itself. I’ve got to say… I myself have murdered a lot of zombies after that, and then one day I grew sick of it. Sick of the smell mostly, and sick of having death be my only friend. I ran, and I found Meg and Danny trying desperately to escape the same death and pain I was experiencing. We were lost, wandering out there with no guidance, and now I have found you and I guess only time will tell me what sort of future that shall lead me to.” He turned back and gave Arisa a reassuring look.

“Again… words cannot be appropriate from me at this point… I have no idea how to respond…”

“Don’t respond then,” Zach said, “just, be my friend. Silence is fine, so long as I get to have someone near me again that doesn’t want to consume my brains.”

Arisa replied, “we unit in tragedy… such a common phrase to hear these days, perhaps it would be a better motto if it were to say ‘we unit in optimism’ don’t you think? We’ll find away to have fun, and I won’t let Silas recruit you,” she shook her fist up at a camera, “he may be good, but he’s had enough!”

She stuck her tongue at the camera then looked back at Zach who gave her a confused look.

“If your story is true,” Arisa said, “then the armored soldiers will want to take you in. Someone who can do the dirtiest of work without letting it affect him. You just made yourself into valuable stuff, but I won’t let them take you just yet. You’ve spent enough time being an adult; I think you should have the opportunity to be a teenager just for a little bit.”

“Sounds like your armored men are the men and women who feel like they have nothing left to lose. They live to kill the enemy that killed them inside… well, and a few that get a sick satisfaction out of it,” Zach added, “I probably would have fit right in with them a few years ago, but I’ve grown tired of killing.”

Arisa nodded, “the idea is that if you do it long enough, everyone starts to enjoy killing the blasted things. You would make yourself an exception to that.”

“Good,” Zach replied.